BRIGID GLANVILLE, PRESENTER: Well, the jobs figures and NAB's trouble with the ACCC were the main event, but it's been a busy day on the markets.

For his take I spoke to Geoff Beeston from Lonsec.

Geoff Beeston, thanks for joining Lateline Business.

GEOFF BEESTON, INVESTMENT ADVISOR, LONSEC: Good to be here Brigid.

BRIGID GLANVILLE: A solid rally. How much of it was due to the stronger than expected employment figures today?

GEOFF BEESTON: Well look we had some great figures out this morning Brigid. Seeing the employment rate dropping from 5.3 to 5.1 per cent, well above consensus.

You immediately saw capital inflows into the Australian dollar, with the dollar jumping by about half a cent and you also saw the ASX200 jump up about 12 points.

That of course put a bit of momentum into the banks which carried us through into the afternoon.

The financials were up about 1.67 per cent by the close of the day.

Of course you also have to take into consideration that the Asian markets had a reasonably good day with a surprising figure off the South Korean index following their announcement of potential trade sanctions against Iran this morning.

BRIGID GLANVILLE: Now oil and gas producer Santos has announced it's going to sell down its stake in the $15 billion Gladstone LNG project in Queensland.

What are investors worried about? Their shares dropped quite a bit today.

GEOFF BEESTON: I think the market really viewed the price as being too low for the equity in this project.

There's a lot of expectations built into Australia's coal seam to LNG projects and I think the market was just basically disappointed with the price.

Santos shares off about seven per cent today.

BRIGID GLANVILLE: Let's move to the gold sector and Avoca Resources is the latest to attract a takeover offer?

GEOFF BEESTON: Absolutely. There's, I think the gold sector has been the darling of the market in the last few weeks following the initial takeover of Andian resources, the take-over bid there.

Of course again Avoca shares disappointing today, down about four per cent, with the script bid from the Canadian mining company.

The issue, I think, investors again have is they're looking for a higher premium given what's happening in the company's Pacific news, as well as the fact from a macro level the gold sector looks extremely appealing as the US government continues to speculate as to putting further liquidity into global financial markets.

BRIGID GLANVILLE: Woolworths has put out its annual report. Did it shed any light on conditions in the retail sector or what they're expecting?

GEOFF BEESTON: Well I think Brigid to answer that question, conditions are extremely good in the retail sector at the moment.

We've got low price inflation and I think what you're going to see is, although Wesfarmers has been continually grabbing market share, we've still seen Woollies posting solid EBIT margins and returning their return on equity.

A few surprises there of course. That Luscombe, CEO Michael Luscombe advised that he might be looking at alternative income streams such as financial service companies.

So that could be an interesting space to watch over the next short while.

BRIGID GLANVILLE: How did Woolworths share price react?

GEOFF BEESTON: It traded fairly flat today, but we have seen very strong buying off the announcement of the $700 million off-market buyback.

So Woolies has been a strong performer. So perhaps you're seeing a little bit profit taking today.

BRIGID GLANVILLE: Geoff Beeston, we'll leave it there, but thanks very much for joining us tonight.